Adios Chicago

We spent the last few days road tripping to Chicago to get our adoption visas. We left Saturday morning and spent the night at a hotel in Madison. The hotel had a fun water park that the boys loved.   Half of it was shallow for the littler kids and the other half was a deeper pool for the big kids.  We had stayed there once before when Owen was barely 2 years old and I was very pregnant with Cole. The boys enjoyed swimming all night long, well, until 7:30 pm when it was time to get ready for bed.  Our room was poolside, which was great for easy access to the pool, but not so great for sleeping.  It was a rough night with everyone struggling to sleep through all the commotion going on outside our door.

Owen and Cole enjoying the water

Cole with the giant crocodile

Owen sitting on the crocodile

Cole enjoyed the water so much that he started practicing his moves from swimming lessons, blowing bubbles and then putting his face in the water, which by the way he hates!  So I was quite surprised when I saw him doing it not once, but 3 times!

Cole blowing bubbles

Cole all wet from putting his face in the water!!

I kept trying to get a photo of Owen coming down this slide, but all I could get was a big splash.  So being the little actor that he is, he pretended to come down the slide and posed just so I could get his photo.

Owen's big splash

Owen posing for the shot

Owen liked the little slides, but he couldn't get enough of the BIG slide. He went down it over and over again.

Woo hoo!

The next day we headed to the big city. It was a beautiful day in Chicago. After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the Colombian Consulate to make sure we wouldn't have any issues finding it for our appointment Monday morning. Owen enjoyed the walk there, looking at all the cool sights on the way, but Cole tuckered out pretty quickly and it wasn't long before he was asking to be carried. We easily found the Consulate and decided to walk down to Navy Pier. It wasn't long before Owen was also complaining about all the walking. Thank goodness we are bringing a double stroller with to Colombia. Our little boys will never survive all the walking we'll be doing there!

Owen with the Colombian Flag in the background

The boys in downtown Chicago

Taking a rest from all the walking

Cole enjoying his mode of transportation

We made it to Navy Pier!

After walking along the pier, Owen discovered the Crystal Gardens, a botanical garden full of tropical plants and leaping water fountains. He was in heaven! He grabbed my camera and started snapping photo after photo. Cole was less impressed and instead played imaginary baseball with Shane (he loves swinging his imaginary bat to hit an invisible ball!)

Then we headed to the family pavilion, looked around at all the shops, and grabbed dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp. America's Funniest Home Videos was playing at the restaurant (it's one of Owen's favorites) and even without sound, we were all laughing.  After dinner, we promised the boys we'd take a cab back to the hotel.  Cole didn't like it at all (he prefers being in his carseat), but Owen thought it was quite the adventure.  Just wait until he experiences driving in Bogota!

After so much walking around, we all slept soundly and were well rested for our big appointment at the Colombian Consulate first thing Monday morning. We got to the Consulate a bit early and rode up in the elevator with a man and woman speaking Spanish, which wasn't unusual - we were after all in the same building as the Colombian Consulate! When we got off the elevator together and I started to open the door to the Consulate, the woman from the elevator asked if we needed help.  I guess we looked a bit out of place. Turns out she was the person in charge of processing visas at the Consulate!  An hour later we were on our way out the door with our visas in hand!

We headed back to our hotel, checked out, and drove the 6 plus hours home (or 8 hours in our case with all our pit stops!) Tomorrow we finish up packing and Wednesday we'll be sky high on our way to Colombia!  Just 4 more days until we meet our daughter!!

We'll be there soon, Rose!!